Just as we were enjoying the treat, Jerry started sending over some of his big stuff, and one shell took the back part of the barn off. Everybody began getting out of the tubs, except a Cockney, who sat up in his tub and shouted out, "Blimey, Jerry, play the blinkin' game. Wait till I've washed me back. I've lorst me soap."--_C. Ralph (late Royal Welch Fusiliers), 153d Guinness Buildings, Hammersmith, W.6._ Back to the Shack Whilst on the Somme in October 1916 my pal Mac (from Notting Hill) and myself were sent forward to a sunken road just behind Les Boeufs to assist at a forward telephone post which was in communication with battalion H.Q. by wire and with the companies in the trenches by runner. During the night a false "S O S" was sent up, and our guns opened out--and, of course, so did the German guns--and smashed our telephone wire. It being "Mac's" turn out, he picked up his 'phone and went up the dug-out steps. When he had almost reached the top a big shell burst right in the dug-out entrance and blew "Mac" back down the stairs to the bottom, bruised, but otherwise unhurt. Picking himself up slowly he removed his hat, placed his hand over his heart, and said, gazing round, "Back to the old 'ome agin--and it ain't changed a bit."--_A. J. West (late Corpl., Signals), 1/13th London Regt., 212 Third Avenue, Paddington, W.10._ His Last Gamble One night in July 1917, as darkness came along, my battalion moved up and relieved a battalion in the front line. Next morning as dawn was breaking Jerry started a violent strafe. My platoon occupied three fire-bays, and we in the centre one could shout to those in the bays on either side, although we could not see them. In one of the end bays was "Monte Carlo" Teddy, a true lad from London, a "bookie's tick-tack" before the war. He was called "Monte Carlo" because he would gamble on anything. As a shell exploded anywhere near us Teddy would shout, "Are you all right, sarge?" until this kind of got on my nerves, so I crawled into his bay to inquire why he had suddenly taken such an interest in my welfare. He explained, "I gets up a draw larst night, sarge, a franc a time, as to which of us in this lot stopped a packet first, and you're my gee-gee." I had hardly left them when a shell exploded in their bay. The only one to stop a packet was Teddy, and we carried him into the next bay to await the stretcher-bearers. I could see he would never reach the dressing station. Within five minutes I had stopped a lovely Blighty, and they put me alongside Teddy. When he noticed who it was he said, "Well I'm blowed, just my blinkin' luck; licked a short head and I shan't last long enough to see if there's a' objection."